Tag Archives: skateboarding

Post navigation

The title “Skate Fails” evokes a series of aborted tricks and falls, but in the hands of ceramist Xavier Mañosa and Alex Trochut for Mañosa’s brand Appartau, it’s the skateboard itself that fails. Made for the San Francisco based company FTC, these ceramic pieces are ingenious riffs on skateboarding’s perils, from the accordion of an abrupt stop to the shattered pieces of a too rough ride. Even in this deconstructed form, the boards are recognizable thanks in part to the inclusion of skate trucks. Mañosa said:

“The idea comes from the attempt to translate the skateboard to Dali’s liquid clocks. Alex and I started experimenting with different kinds of liquids, like honey or acrylic paint, observing how it dripped and flowed. We applied these exercises to the ceramic skateboard, melting it and seeing how it burned and wrinkled. The outcome was the collection of melted boards.” (Source)

It’s a clever idea executed beautifully, in clear, bright colors, glossy metallics, and nebulous form. The curiously lovely distorted and broken forms serve also as grim reminder of the skateboard riders’ reality, where a stray rock or crack can mean a hospitalization or worse.

“Ceramics are fragile and if they fall they break; something very important in my work,” Mañosa said. “I don’t create indestructible things.” (Source)

Curiot is a Mexico City based artist who combines indigenous and street art to make some incredible, mythical murals. I would recommend making the trip south to see some his murals in person; it’s 100% worth it. If you get there and can’t find any, you might be able to pick up some of his sculptures at La Vamp skateboard shop in La Roma.

We first posted the work of Haroshi back in 2010 but we couldn’t resist giving you an update of this artists incredible sculptures created out of used skateboard decks. His creations are born through styles such as wooden mosaic, dots, and pixels; where each element, either cut out in different shapes or kept in their original form, are connected in different styles, and shaven into the form of the final art piece. Haroshi became infatuated with skateboarding in his early teens, and is still a passionate skater at present. He knows thoroughly all the parts of the skateboard deck, such as the shape, concave, truck, and wheels. He often feels attached to trucks with the shaft visible, goes around picking up and collecting broken skateboard parts, and feels reluctant to throw away crashed skateboards. It’s only natural that he began to make art pieces (i.e. recycling) by using skateboards. To Haroshi, his art pieces are equal to his skateboards, and that means they are his life itself. They’re his communication tool with both himself, and the outside world.

The most important style of Haroshi’s three-dimensional art piece is the wooden mosaic. In order to make a sculpture out of a thin skateboard deck, one must stack many layers. But skate decks are already processed products, and not flat like a piece of wood freshly cut out from a tree. Moreover, skateboards may seem like they’re all in the same shape, but actually, their structure varies according to the factory, brand, and popular skaters’ signature models. With his experience and almost crazy knowledge of skateboards, Haroshi is able to differentiate from thousands of used deck stocks, which deck fits with which when stacked. After the decks are chosen and stacked, they are cut, shaven, and polished with his favorite tools. By coincidence, this creative style of his is similar to the way traditional wooden Japanese Great Buddhas are built. 90% of Buddha statues in Japan are carved from wood, and built using the method of wooden mosaic; in order to save expense of materials, and also to minimize the weight of the statue. So this also goes hand in hand with Haroshi’s style of using skateboards as a means of recycling. Also, although one is not able to see from outside, there is a certain metal object that is buried inside his three-dimensional statue. The object is a broken skateboard part that was chosen from his collection of parts that became deteriorated and broke off from skateboards, or got damaged from a failed Big Make attempt. To Haroshi, to set this kind of metal part inside his art piece means to “give soul” to the statue. “Unkei,” a Japanese sculptor of Buddhas who was active in the 12th Century, whose works are most popular even today among the Japanese people; used to set a crystal ball called “Shin-Gachi-Rin (Heart Moon Circle)” in the position of the Buddha’s heart. This would become the soul of the statue. So the fact that Haroshi takes the same steps in his creation may be a natural reflection of his spirit and aesthetic as a Japanese.

NJ-native Matthew Charles Crabe pulls his imagery out from the deepest parts of his mind-gutter. There’s all sorts of fleshy things teleporting out of, or going into, strange orifices, then there’s the spillage of lactated milk, 40oz malt liquor, doo-doo, female and male juices, complete with the ageless beauty of symmetry. This wonderful mixture makes me think of one of his horrific, yet funny, images being diagrammed for there beautifully symmetrical properties in the way a celebrity’s face might be. Be warned, all images after the jump are certainly incredibly gnarly.

Michael Burnett, renowned skate photographer extraordinare, has taken many of the iconic photographs that come to mind when thinking of greats such as Tom Penny and John Cardiel. However, taking a great skateboarding photograph is a much different task than photographing the people above the skateboard. His portraits of suburban kids sprawling for free t-shirts and familiar faces removed from their territory tell a different story- often the much more interesting one.

Christian Stearry is great example of what happens when one spends their entire youth skateboarding- it begins to permeate every aspect of your life. His illustrations are focused on the tongue-in-cheek jokes found in growing up “bad,” whether it’s through graffiti, drinking, or being that guy that brings his bong everywhere. Lucky for us, it works.

Acid Drops is a breathtakingly exquisite yet simple ongoing animation series by Matt Box that psychedelically captures the individual styles of influential skateboarders.First up is one of my favorite skaters, Jason Dill. Watch the full video in all its technicolor glory after the jump.

This is the unbelievable survival story of a young skateboarder named Ross Capicchioni from Detroit. I don’t want to ruin the story but if you only do one thing today watch this video. I promise that you’ll forever be changed. Watch the 2 part video after the jump.